Book excerpt: Here's a book that quickly solves that thorny problem common to so many of us: What birthday gift would be perfect for that friend or loved one who has everything? The editor of The Book of Birthday Wishes has searched international sources and found the perfect present: a treasury of heartfelt wishes for a happy birthday and good cheer throughout the rest of the year. In this volume Dr. Edward Hoffman, editor of the popular Book of Fathers' Wisdom, presents a wise and witty collection of pithy statements, advice, encouragement, loving thoughts, memories, and warm wishes from family, friends, and even foes -- all acknowledging a birthday. The selections are drawn from the letters, memoirs, inscriptions, and cards sent by a variety of historically famous men and women, including Elizabeth Barrett Browning, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, Sigmund Freud, Harry Truman, George Burns, Isaac Asimov, D. H. Lawrence, Theodore Roosevelt, Virginia Woolf, and John F. Kennedy. In their wide-ranging and often inspirational ways, all of the wishes repeated here will help to celebrate birthdays everywhere.